12/5/13

Bratton Will Return under deBlasio

Mayor-elect Bill deBlasio announced this morning at the Red Hook Community Justice Center that he will name William Bratton as commissioner of the New York Police Department.

Bratton, who has become an international figure since his first stint as NYPD commissioner in the mid-1990s, was the front-runner for the job.

Choosing the high-profile, generally well-regarded Bratton appeared to
polit-watchers as an effort by deBlasio to both hold down crime and fine-tune
street policing.

Bratton famously ran the NYPD when crime rates were soaring and the rift between the public and the NYPD growing wider. While Bratton will return to a city seeing record-low crime numbers, the stop and frisk rift between the NYPD and the public is still unhealed.

Bratton II will probably be one of deBlasio's most impactful appointments. Both deBlasio, who campaigned on getting stop and frisk right, and Bratton will be judged on whether the city can be as tough as it needs to on violent crime while staying inside the lines of legal stop and frisk.

Council Member Vinnie Gentle praised deBlasio's choice as "wise", calling Bratton a "tried and true law enforcement professional" and a proven crime fighter.

Council Member and presumptive 2014 Democratic congressional candidate Dominic Recchia praised deBlasio's choice of Bratton as "thoughtful." Having observed Bratton over many years, Recchia said, he'd seen both a demonstrated regard for "civil liberties, transparency and community relations" and an impressive crime-fighting record. Bratton's expertise, Recchia said, will likely ensure the continued decline of violent crime in New York City.